It is desired to increase the effective resolution of lithographic techniques for manufacturing integrated circuits. One suggested approach is to use x-ray lithography with the photon energy ranging between 0.1 and 1 keV (the so-called "soft+ x-ray). It is believed that soft x-ray lithography is the next step, after the visible and ultraviolet light lithography, to achieve a deep submicron resolution for fabrication of integrated circuits and semiconductor devices.
One problem with using soft x-rays is the absence of a source that is sufficiently intense and inexpensive to produce soft x-ray radiation in the desired photon energy range. Only the radiation produced by the curved very high energy electron beam (around 1 billion eV) of a synchrotron is now regarded as a potential candidate for the soft x-ray source for submicron lithography.
However, the known sources of the synchrotron radiation are extremely complicated, expensive, and delicate machines. They are principally used in physics research. In the present moment and in the near future they apparently will not be available for the massive industrial manufacturing of deep submicron resolution integrated circuits.